As part of a statewide emphasis on consolidating wastewater systems, URS Corp. has requested permission from El Paso County to construct a lift station and sanitary sewer force main, which will be routed through the unincorporated town of Falcon.Shelia Booth is with the county planning commission, and she said the request was submitted last week and will be on the agenda in August. The new force main will be located primarily within public rights-of-way, taking the “most direct” route from Falcon to Schriever Air Force Base, Todd Cartwright, URS engineer and project manager, said.The exact route of the new force main will begin southwest of the lift station on McLaughlin Road and progress southwest to Meridian Road (0.3 miles), south to South Blaney Road (3.7 miles), east to Hoofbeat Road (1.5 miles), south to Davis Road (0.8 miles), east to the intersection of Davis and Blaney roads (0.5 miles) and south just past Highway 94 to an existing force main (2.1 miles).”If it’s possible to eliminate a system, that’s always a plus,” Cartwright said. “By combining it with the Cherokee Metro District system, now we only have one system to maintain.”Residents of Falcon can expect only “minor inconveniences,” Cartwright said.The effect it will have on the neighborhood is none. “There will be a short period of time when the contractors are laying pipe, which is going to cause minor inconveniences,” Cartwright said. “But a good, responsible contractor lets the neighbors know ahead of time and tries to make arrangements with scheduling.”The proposed improvements include two pumps, each capable of 2.4 million gallons per day; a backup generator; a trash and grit removal system; as well as nine miles of 16-inch force main, which will be buried roughly five-and-one-half feet in the earth. Some manholes will be installed for maintenance purposes.The first of two phases of the project includes constructing the new lift station, located on McLaughlin Road, approximately 1,000 feet south of Woodman Road and installing the force main to transport the sewage. Both tasks are scheduled for completion this year.In the first phase, sewage will be pumped east to the existing Cherokee Metropolitan District plant, adjacent to Peterson Air Force Base. The pumps will be limited to 150,000 gallons per day, with a maximum pumping rate of 1,150 gallons per minute. Sewage in excess of that figure will be pumped to the Paint Brush Hills Waste Water Treatment Plant.The existing lift station on McLaughlin Road will remain in use until the Paint Brush Hills plant closes. The lift station could be refurbished for use as a redundant system to support the pumping of sewage to the Cherokee Metro District plant through the proposed force main.No other lift stations are scheduled to be built in the town of Falcon at this time. “This one pump station is sufficient to take discharge to the existing or new Cherokee plant,” Cartwright said.The second phase includes constructing a new, larger treatment plant that will belong to Cherokee Metropolitan District – located southeast of the Schriever Air Force Base, he said. That plant should be functional by January 2007.Sewage will be pumped west to the new wastewater treatment plant. The pumps will be limited to 2.4 million gallons per day, at a rate not to exceed 1,675 gallons per minute, which should handle the predicted flow of sewage.The proposed lift station will process sewage in three steps: trash removal and grit removal, solid waste and pumping the remaining sewage offsite. “The above-ground level of this structure will contain air scrubbers, solid waste dumpsters and controls for the equipment,” Cartwright said. “The structure will be equipped with seals and odor-control equipment to remove offensive odors.”The facilities will serve residents of Meridian Ranch, Woodmen Hills, Falcon Highlands, Falcon Hills and Falcon Vista, including schools and commercial property within those subdivisions.URS Corp. is an international engineering firm with more than $3 billion in annual revenues, according to its Web site.
